Hooked on torment

Original article found here

I read the original article published on Cricinfo yesterday. The only word to describe it is BRILLIANT!

"...All fans - the ones like me who need sport to give a sort of shape to life - are masochists. What else can you be when you switch on the TV at three o'clock in the morning knowing that your team is going to get a pasting - again?"

My love for cricket started with the Relaince World Cup in 1987 and strengthened over time. But 1991-92 was the time when I got 'Hooked' on the torment to use the author's words. That was the time when I flirted with playing more than just 'galli' cricket. Classes were given a ditch, white became the uniform and Azad maidan in Mumbai became a second home. About 1995 is when I realized that I wasn't good enough to make it big - but I continued to be hooked.


"The pact between a fan and his team is sacrosanct. It cannot be broken. It is not like the colas or the cars or the credit cards or the car tyres the players endorse. Don't like it? Flush it down the toilet. Sell it off. Exchange it for something better. Buy a new one."

I had never before imagined a better way of putting in words as to why we keep on following the same teams for life - India and Mumbai for me. Another argument is that why follow domestic cricket when there is so much big bang available on TV. For me, having been to the Mumbai grounds and having personally seen players of the current generation in the Mumbai team and the history keeps me attached. I distinctly remember Mumbai loosing the Ranji final in 1991-92 to Haryana and Vengsarkar's heroics during that game. I also remember the 1994-95 "Tendulkar" season. The most recent 2009-10 season when Mumbai held on to beat a strong Karnataka side by 6 runs.

"....Every fan realises this: feeling miserable is part of the deal. But riding the misery and sticking with it is the deal. You can't support another team (Namibia?), or suddenly be passionate about another sport (ice hockey?). It's this or nothing. And nothing is so much worse."

And yes thats true!

Best places we have been to 2 ...

Best places we have been to ...

Lonely Planet

I have been in this work for a while now - so much so that I am readily accepted as an old timer. I have seen many come and go and it never bothered me so much as it did today. The guy who I originally started to work for quit, after years of service for the company.
I never thought attrition would bother me. I have seen people quit after a week, months, years. However today was different for me. I felt like I have lost a great supporter, mentor from my professional life. Working will be different, approaches will be different, hell....lunches will be different this point on.

Who needs a coach?

Whats common between the Indian cricket triumphs in West Indies in 1971, England 1986, England 2007? All of them came without a full time coach!

The T20 win is the second major Indian victory after the Test series in England. Which brings us to the question if we really need a coach. The short answer is YES. The long answer is that we do not need a big name. More precisely we do not need a name that come with a big ego tag. The cricket managers for the England and SA tours were decent cricketers with First Class experience. They were flexible guys, ready to work with the team, ready to go that extra mile without making a fuss. Chandu Borde and Lalchand Rajput were the average cricketers. Yet managed to contribute their bit for the successful campaigns. So rather than going for the Chappelles and the Kings of the coaching world, we need to go with a 'workable' guy who is a better man manager than a teacher.

World Champs!

Never thought I would see India become world chapms in some team sport in my lifetime. The cricket team came close on two occassions in world cups, they did win a Champions Trophy in 2002 - but agaun that was a shared prize with SriLanka.

Finally the team played the dream game for two weeks to become the world champs - what if it was Twenty20! T20 is what One day cricket was thought of in the 70s - Taking away the skills from the game, too much action, luck plays a role, ya da ya da ya da.... the same was said of the 50 over format in the 70s. The Australian team says that test cricket is the "real" cricket and that they will never warm up to this T20 version. So much for being gracious losers!
The Indian success has again shown that ratings, analysis and expert opinions mean zippo for big tournaments like this. On the other hand the success does not mean that Indian cricket is back to what it used to be during the 2002-04 seasons. Only time will tell if they can stand the test of the Australian tour.

Again not to leave our football and hockey teams who have pitched in with high profile trophies in the last few days. Winning major tournaments in so many sports is a new experience for India. So much so that this has been attributed to the 'Chuk De - India' magic and to the omnipresent SRK. Thank God KANK was a flop!!

Around the states

May 2007 started what would seem like a endless endavour on the road. More than 5000 miles on the road in 30 days, drive through 15 different states, new places to see, some places revisited, some interesting, some plainly overrated.
The tour started from Chicago. And this is my third time in as many years in Chicago. The city gets interesting everytime. There is always something new, something exciting to do in Chicago. Unlike Houston! Lake front was a different experience than last time.
Niagara Falls was cold and frozen. Still the lights and sights were spectacular. New York is Mumbai minus the sweat. I was a bit worried about adjusting to the trains and schedules but intuitions and habits learned in the past in Mumbai got back to me just in the nick of time. D.C as ever was spectacular. Impressive government buildings. Unfortunately we could not get into the tour of the Capitol. Florida was hot, humid and fun. Five parks in six days!

All the driving does make me not wanting to see the road for a while. But have I any choice where I can say: Rickshaw and be done with it?

Cup-less

The world cup for India was over even before it started. Or atleast it felt like that. Many be we were looking too far into the Super 8 stage that we forgot about the qualifying round. But I would still say that Bangadesh were something else on that day and that day only. I would not be surprised a bit if India would trash them 2-0 and 3-0 in the series that starts in May.

Dismantelling the loss (euphemism for blame game, scrape goats being named, 'inflamatory' questions) is now over. Many good things are in the pipeline for Team India. Some of them necessary and some of them self inflicted by the players. Anouncements like professional selectors, professional team management and no zonal system are all good news. Where the Board sucessfully duped everyone was that there is no improvement announced in its own functioning. So there will still be ad-hoc series announced, ad-hoc marketing deals signed. The player-borad conflict will still be there.

One of the announcements was of restricting players to doing 3 endorsements at a time. I look upon this a depriving an individual of potential earning opportunities. Many believe that players spend more time doing endorsement commitments than playing cricket. Well believe it or not but the players have less than 7 days of shoots every year. The shoots are arranged according to the players schedule between series. The board has not only put a cap on the number of endorsements but also put a clause of no shoots 15 days before a series, which is btw interesting. When do you remember Team India having more than 15 days between series? Never. Because the board has signed them up for more cricket. So any former player who comes out saying that current players are more interested in endorsements...and compares how they were patriotic during his playing days is basically bitter about having had less opportunities during his time. These are the same players who had to be given a laundry incentive for diving while fielding.

Allegations against Gangully about his playing for himself were also made. Well....should I remind that the current incumbent manager/coach was almost hooted out of cricket for his snail paced scoring, a cartain player decided to walk the team off when he was not given proper treatment onfield, the greatest allrounder India has produced was also alleged to have hung in till be got to a world record. I would say Gangully played per the situation and played well. Plugged one end...to be precise!

You have to accept victory and defeat as a part of the game. A true cricket fan is a fan of the game and follows his team. He likes and appreciates good cricket.

The GE-tization

I was a bit anxious this week. My work place was getting ge-tized. Meaning we were going to be the latest addition to the brand portfolio of General Electric. Number 2 on the stock markets and the only company to be on the top 30 list since the inception of the stocks. It is said that if you had a $100 share of GE from 1892, its worth $5,000,000 now!

The entire process is really really well managed. The company is so used to acquisitions that it is a 'been there done that' for them. Their process of integrating companies must be one of the best practices in the market. One great thing about this development is that I get to be part of one of the largest employers in the world. I had thought that working at Telco would be as big as it gets in terms of employee strength of the TATA group. Almost everything you every use.... odds are that at some point in manufacture, design, finance or infrastructure GE has been involved. It all started with Edison. So as soon as you walk into a room and switch on the light..its us. The other good thing about this integration is that GE are just begining their journey in our business. So they will have lot more respect for what we do.

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